Who: Leo Valdez and Poe Dameron Where: Midtown Motors When: Friday afternoon What: Looking for a job + Match Up Rating: Low Status: complete gdoc
Sparring with Jason was fun and everything, but Leo wasn’t a warrior. He would leave that up to the Romans and the Ares cabin. He would much rather be fixing things, building things, and getting greasy. His shop teacher at school kicked him out by four every afternoon and finally recommended he go see a place called Midtown Motors. And so he decided to do that.
When Leo walked through the open bay door into the shop and smelled the motor oil and grease, he instantly smiled. It almost smelled like home except there was no hint of Tabasco sauce from Festus to add to the mix. Still, he instantly felt comfortable in the space. Maybe he should have used the front door like a customer, but it hadn’t occurred to the teenage boy. Instead, he found himself walking over to a car that had its lid open.
He had just meant to take a peek, honest, but once he peeked under the hood, he instantly saw the problem. There was a tiny little voice that told him not to touch anything - he didn’t work here - but the fix would be so easy.
This was how Leo Valdez ended up bent over with his butt in the air, fixing a car essentially for free.
--
Poe had gone in search of some parts for the vehicle he was working on and was very confused when he returned to the bay and found a young man leaning over the car, elbow deep in the engine. It wasn’t someone he recognized, though he supposed it was possible this was the car’s owner.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Can I help you with something?”
***
Leo heard the voice and stood up from under the hood. He was covered in grease, though if it was new or old it was always hard to tell with him. He had in his hand a head gasket. “Hey, this thing is hella rusty, man.” Leo’s fingers scraped at the rust on the metal. “Probably get the rust off though and reuse the part. Feels like this person just left his car to die - has he never heard of maintenance?” Leo almost sounded personally offended by this.
--
The item in Poe’s hand was the exact same part and he held it up to show the grease-covered kid. “Seemed a little too far gone to reuse,” he said. “Planning to replace it.” He still had no idea who this kid was or what he was doing under the hood, but his comments made it pretty clear that he wasn’t the car’s owner.
“I’m sorry, do you work here?” Poe asked. “I don’t remember meeting you.”
***
He blinked like he was confused and then it hit him. “Oh! Uh, not yet? I came here to sort of find out if I could? I’m really good at building and fixing things and I’m getting kind of bored here just going to school?” He offered a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, no doubt getting a smudge of black there too.
“My name’s Leo. Leo Valdez. My mom used to work at a machine shop? My dad’s also Hephaestus if that helps my resume any.” He didn’t actually have a physical resume at all with him though.
--
“I don’t think they need a resume,” Poe said. He knew he hadn’t provided one. In fact, he only knew what a resume was thanks to watching television and movies. “And I don’t know who Hephaestus is.” It sounded like the name of some mythical being though from his limited experience with such things.
Despite his previous experience being with spaceships, Poe could tell that this kid, Leo, knew his way around an engine though. Probably better than Poe himself did. “I’m Poe Dameron,” he said, wiping his hands on a nearby towel and holding one out to shake. “Not in charge of the hiring around here, but I can put in a good word for you.”
***
When Poe extended his hand, Leo paused and then wiped his hands on his pants which only helped moderately for his hand. Still, he reached over and shook the man’s hand. “Hephaestus is the Greek god of like, machines and fire and stuff.” Somewhere Annabeth Chase was rolling her eyes at that description.
“It’s nice to meet you.” He nodded. “If you could put a good word in, that’d be awesome. I promise I’m really good at fixing stuff.” He was also good at inventing stuff, but that probably wasn’t super relevant to this sort of job. “I just would really like something to do here before I lose my mind.”
--
Poe could understand that. He didn’t know a lot about gods and whatnot, but he knew that a lot of people here were from places where their lives were full of action, himself included, so he was guessing that was the case for Leo too.
“Are you in school?” he asked. “My girlfriend’s niece goes to the high school here. That might be a good way to keep busy.”
***
“I am. It’s okay.” He shrugged. Leo had never been able to sit still for a lot time to learn. “It’s a lot of sitting and stuff. Sometimes the teachers do stuff in groups - that’s cool.” Leo’s ADHD made regular classes hard on him to endure, though he did his best. Sometimes he had to go walk the halls for a bit, but he rarely skipped.
“My favourite classes, are auto shop, wood shop, and P.E.” His English was a struggle, but that was because of his dyslexia too. “I thought this would keep me busy after? Plus, I could use the money and stuff.”
--
“What’s your guardian have to say about that?” Poe asked. He didn’t know a lot about taking care of teenagers, but he knew that education was important and he didn’t want Leo to fall behind in his studies or anything.
It wasn’t really a surprise that the kid enjoyed classes where he got to do something other than just sit and read a book though.
***
“Oh, uh. I don’t have one?” He paused, then shrugged. “I haven’t really had a guardian for like, a long time? Not unless you count Coach Hedge or Chiron, but I don’t think either of them actually count.” The Satyr needed his own guardian half of the time and Chiron ran an entire camp - Leo didn’t like the idea that he was responsible the wellfare of him plus all the other kids. He’d rather take himself out of the equation so the others could be protected better.
--
As someone who’d functioned on his own for a long time, Poe understood that it was very likely Leo was fully capable of taking care of himself. However, he also knew that the rules around here required anyone under the age of eighteen to have a guardian.
“Uh, well, if you’re under eighteen, you’re supposed to have one,” he said. “So, if you want, I could do it. They’d move us into a bigger apartment.”
***
Leo hadn’t even thought of it. It was weird to think he’d be required to live with an adult after so long, but if the guy in front of him was willing to take the burden of responsibility, Leo could think of worse people - at least this guy liked fixing things.
“I mean… sure?” He shrugged, feeling a little awkward about it, but covering it up by rubbing the back of his neck. “Think of me as a ticket to a bigger place! And I don’t come with a mechanical dragon, unfortunately.” Leo really missed Festus.
--
Poe’s eyes widened at the thought of a mechanical dragon. He wasn’t sure that not having one was really unfortunate.
“You don’t have to decide now,” he said. “But keep it in mind and message me if you decide you want to give it a go.” He was pretty easy going and wouldn’t try to control Leo’s comings and goings or anything.
***
Leo gave him a nod. Living with someone probably wouldn’t be so bad - then he didn’t have to remember to pay for things like electricity or internet. “Okay, yeah. I should, uh…” He realized he was still holding onto the rusty head gasket and looked around for a moment before setting it down on a flat surface. “You know, go. But, I’d really appreciate it if you could help me get a job here and stuff!” He started to back out toward the bay doors. “And I’ll contact you about the guardian thing!” With that and a lift of his hand in a stationary wave, Leo turned and left with a smile on his face.